


The Basis of Optimism

by MK_Yujji



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, not s2 compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-14 01:55:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4545756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MK_Yujji/pseuds/MK_Yujji
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma isn't the optimist that Fitz is, but she does believe in hedging her bets.  When Fitz is taken by HYDRA, she'll play every card she can get her hands on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Basis of Optimism

**Author's Note:**

> _The basis of optimism is sheer terror. - Oscar Wilde_
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> S1 compliant. S2.... not so much. I did keep the assumption that they captured Ward and that not nice things probably happened during his incarceration.

It's not the first time that Jemma Simmons has been in this situation.  SHIELD's track record for expendable losses is sketchier than she'd like to admit.  She can even understand the necessity ninety-nine times out of a hundred.  One scientist or soldier does not warrant the loss of dozens more in hastily thrown together rescue missions that are statistically unlikely to succeed.

The good of the many outweighed the good of the one. 

It’s the simplest logic of all, the easiest math there is. She just has a harder time remembering that when the scientist they're leaving stranded in enemy territory is Fitz.

"Jemma..."

"He wouldn't leave us behind," she mutters, shying away from the hand Skye tries to settle on her shoulder.

She doesn't want to be comforted, not now.  Not when Fitz could be enduring torture or worse in HYDRA's hands.

"Coulson and May will come up with a plan," Skye promises, her own voice shaky.  Jemma wonders who she's trying to convince more.

The thing is that Skye's not wrong.  Their team is well known for breaking SHIELD's unspoken rules when it suits them.  They'll come up with a plan.  They'll go back.  That isn't even in question.

The question is how much damage HYDRA will do before they come up with something workable.

Coulson and May aren't above suicide missions, they simply try to confine themselves to the missions where they can stack the odds in their favour.  Preferably with as much backup as possible. The kind of rescue missions that take time to plan.

The only one who'd ever been willing to go into situations he knew he probably wouldn't have anyone but himself was...

She pauses as the idea hits her.

She doesn't trust him and she doesn't believe that his remorse had been real.  

But Fitz does.

He's never said it aloud and he probably hasn’t even admitted it to himself consciously, but Jemma can tell.  A part of Fitz will always trust that there's goodness in Grant Ward.  He's an optimist at heart and even the entire mess with HYDRA had only dented that, not broken it.

"I want to be alone," Jemma says, crossing her arms over her chest and doing her best to look like she wanted space to cry.  It's the only way she's going to get Skye to leave without being cruel.

Thankfully, it works.

Skye's smile looks more like a grimace, but she starts backing out of the room which is what Jemma wants.

Once she’s alone, she waits a minute to make sure no one else is going to come in. She doesn't expect trouble, though. Comforting people isn’t really something May or Coulson are particularly good at.  Their reassurances will come once they’ve come up with a plan and a rescue mission is imminent. 

She slips out of her own small room and into Fitz’s with the ease of familiarity.  

Things have been strained between them since the day everything had fallen so horribly off the rails of normal, but he’s still her best friend. There are still times when they need to be away from the others together to find their balance in a world that truly seems to have gone mad.

Settling on his bed, she doesn’t let herself take the time to look around and see the evidence that he’d been in this very spot only a few hours before.  She can’t think about that right now.

The small slip of paper is right where she expects it to be, tucked into the nightstand.  It’s badly wrinkled from numerous repetitions of being crumpled up and smoothed back out.  There’s tape in three different places where it’s been ripped and the ink is smudged.

Part of of her hopes that it’s just from the oil on Fitz’s fingers, but Jemma knows that’s probably wishful thinking.

He’s always been a little more optimistic than she ever was and that’s made his heart a great deal more tender and bruisable.  

Jemma doesn’t have Fitz’s faith - not really, not in people.  She believes in science and logic and facts.  

Logically, if she’s right about the depths of Ward’s evil and Fitz is wrong, nothing is lost.  Fitz’s position isn’t going to be any worse than it is right now.

If she’s wrong…

Can she live with herself if Fitz dies and she knows that she hasn’t done every single thing she possibly can to save him?

She takes a deep breath and uses the faded, wrinkled number to send a message before she can second guess her impulsive decision.

_Hydra has Fitz._

Another deep breath and Jemma curls up into the corner, her knees tucked up against her chest, her arms wrapped tightly around them.

The phone is still clutched in her fingers when the vibration signals an incoming message.

It takes a long moment before she can bring herself to look.

Then she stares without comprehension at the simple _ok_ that stares back at her.

“What does that even mean?” she mutters, deleting both messages.  “Okay, you don’t care?  Okay, you’re going to save him?  Okay, you understand what I’m saying but it’s out of your hands?”

Still, something loosens in her chest just a little bit at the knowledge that the number was real and that her message was received.

Maybe she has some of Fitz’s optimism after all.

~*~*~

“Look, I understand what you’re saying, but that’s suicide,” Bobbi says, shaking her head at the rescue mission that Coulson has outlined.

May doesn’t look much happier.

“If you’ve got a better idea, I’m all ears.”  Coulson crosses his arms in a way that’s probably supposed to be intimidating, but he’s too worn thin to really pull it off.  No one speaks up.  “This is the best we’ve got, so this is what we’re going with.”

“Coulson…”  Bobbi’s mouth twists unhappily.  “It’s been three days since Fitz was taken.  The odds are-”

“Not zero.”

“They’re not good, either.”

Jemma is trying to hold herself separate from the others and not think about what’s being said. Three days in HYDRA hands really isn’t good odds for anyone.  Highly trained field agents have broken in less time.

She doesn’t want to imagine what they could have done to someone like Fitz in three days.

“We are not leaving Fitz-”

“You already left him.”  Bobbi shrugs, the look on her face pained and sympathetic.  “Look.  We lose agents.  It sucks, but it happens.  We’re barely scraping together enough agents to fight HYDRA as it is.  We can’t just throw away another handful on a rescue mission that has _maybe_ a 12% chance of success.”

May doesn’t really seem to like the plan any better than Bobbi, but neither does she seem like she’s willing to remove her support of it.  “We’ve done more with less.”

“And we’ve abandoned agents with more.  I get it.  He’s your teammate and he’s barely a step up from a civilian, but this plan isn’t going to work and you all know it.”

"Our sources say that HYDRA seems to be fighting itself right now.  This is the best opportunity we're going to get."

"The in-fighting is only going to make the situation more volatile.  It's too unpredictable.  And one helluva coincidence.  Frankly, it sounds more like a trap to me."

The argument only _seems_ like it’s been going on for hours.  

Jemma presses the edge of the phone she has barely let go of for three days against her forehead and clenches her eyes shut.

They’re wasting time.  Time that Fitz probably doesn’t have.

This is exactly what she’d been afraid of.

Her phone vibrates and she glances at it more out of habit than expectation.

_Open the door._

Her breath catches and Jemma looks up to see that everyone is still arguing except Skye.

Skye is looking at back at her with curious concern.  “Jemma…”

Whatever she’s going to say is interrupted by a sharp pounding on the outer hull of the bus.

Jemma doesn’t even bother with the security cameras.  She ignores the cacophony of demands and questions as she rushes over to hit the ramp controls.

She’s off the bus before the ramp is even fully down, throwing her arms around a battered looking Fitz.  

His breath leaves him in an oof of surprise and he wraps one arm around her.  “Hi.”

Pulling back a bit, she takes a better look at him.  He’s injured, but not nearly as badly as she’d feared.  And someone has tended to him.  There are butterfly bandages over the cuts on his face and the arm that isn’t around her is wrapped up in a sling.

They share a smile and she takes a shaky breath, pulling his head down to her shoulder.  She doesn't see anyone in the airfield around them, but somehow she knows _he's_ out there somewhere, watching.

She'll never really trust him again like she once did, but this?  Saving Fitz when he didn't have to and without fanfare or reward?  

This matters.

"Thank you," she whispers, hoping that even if he can't hear her, he can see the form of the words from wherever he is and know just how much she means them.

_fin_

**Author's Note:**

> I'm fiddling with a companion piece from either Fitz or Ward's pov. Not entirely sure it'll pan out, though.


End file.
